I saw this film couple of days before. Its a SCI-FI and graphics or not very sharp but don’t forget , it was made in 1976. The basic plot of story is pretty interesting.
Somewhere in 2116 , all the humans have an age limit , that is 30 years. After that they participate in a carrousel for renewal. There are two kind of people, Sandmen and Reds – known as runners. Our hero is a sandman whose job is to kill runners. It is believed that runners escapes to some unknown sanctuary which is outside of the city. Our Hero , Logan 5 is sent to find this sanctuary for that he is changes into a runner.Now he starts running and story moving.
I am die hard fan of science fiction films. And if i compare it to other films like Alien , 2001 : A space odyssey , Blade Runner then it certainly doesn’t stand anywhere. But then i think it had a very low budget so its ok. You can give it one hit but certainly not recommended. Although there is another low budget classic sci-fi, A boy and his Dog ( Recommended ) . If you love Sci-Fi then give it a click.
Coming back to Logan’s Run , Story is good but the treatment and screenwriting is very very loose. I think that’s why it doesn’t hold your interest. The very first scene is off carousel which sets the basic background of film.Within 15 minutes we are into the conflict zone. After that a lot of things happen randomly. As Logan 5 is suddenly chosen as a runner. And i badly felt need of a good Villain . I mean someone to stand against protagonist goal.
It seems it was the machine which was running the city and Logan’ 5’s friend, Francis was representing her. But it was not life threatening. And even Francis was able to chase Logan anywhere easily. The most disappointed scene was when this only villain is killed by Logan 5 without serving any purpose. What a waste of a character. And same goes with the climax scene , it was meant to be an emotional one but didn’t work well.
After watching it i am planning to re-visit my sci-fi collection and looking forward to see one of them once more. Although let me tell you it was based on a novel by William F, Nolan and i have read it is being remade. So wait till 2012 may be you can get a better version and real idyllic sci-fi.
Did anyone come across this film ? If yes then tell me honestly , how was the experience ? Do you regret ? Do you think it was not the worst after all, there are some more Bluish film ? Possible (i.e – Life Partner). But the whole point is, these people have claimed spending 100 kr on this film. Wait a minute where ? had they bought sharks and then trained them ?
If you look at the paper , you will get mesmerized . I mean Royal Challange- Akshay , Old monk – Snajy , kingfisher bear – Lara and Soda – Zaid khan . On the top they had hired international cinematographer who had worked in ‘ Pirates of Carrabian ’ ( for what- To make a documentary on Bahams sea ). I mean, dont know why but exactly when intermission appeared on the screen, i felt ‘ is it funded by Ministry of Tourism of Bahamas or what ?’ .
There is everything except story . I mean even not an illogical one . And look at the creative side ‘ Akshay dives in the water with bike and survives a hurricane just by using air from tyres.’
CRITICAL NOTES -
The main focus of the story was Treasure Hunt. The whole F*** first half has been used as a set up . There is Treasure somewhere deep into the blue. Why the hell i am dancing and talking ( Bhaisaheb ham bat kar sakte hai kya ?) on the earth ? it was a total looser in first half and goes in minus if we are looking at second half.
After so many years they go down the water and in one shot they get it. No adventure even not a single one. Through out the film i was expecting to see something unexpected and exciting and what i saw was only unexpected 
.
And dont talk about characcters. Why to waste time ? You dont need to know anything about them . Akshay is rich guy , girls are dying for him in every corner ( outside the pubs and all ). Sanjay has some dark BLUE secret ( arav tujhe mere gusse ka samna na hi karna pade to achcha ) , through the first hald i heard it more than 4 or 5 times. Lara .. ohh…bikiny babe .. end of the story.
Kylie Minogue was also there to do some CHIKI MIKI CHIKI MIKI . ( heard they spend 5-7 kr for this song 
) . i can make 3 films out of one song.
RATINGS -
1/2 Star , 4 Black Holes
वन्दे मातरम्
सुजलां सुफलां मलयजशीतलाम्
बहुबलधारिणीं नमामि तारिणीम्
रिपुदलवारिणीं मातरम्॥
सुजलां सुफलां मलयजशीतलाम्
सस्य श्यामलां मातरंम् .
शुभ्र ज्योत्सनाम् पुलकित यामिनीम्
फुल्ल कुसुमित द्रुमदलशोभिनीम्,
सुहासिनीं सुमधुर भाषिणीम् .
सुखदां वरदां मातरम् ॥
सप्त कोटि कन्ठ कलकल निनाद कराले
द्विसप्त कोटि भुजैर्ध्रत खरकरवाले
के बोले मा तुमी अबले
बहुबल धारिणीम् नमामि तारिणीम्
रिपुदलवारिणीम् मातरम् ॥
तुमि विद्या तुमि धर्म, तुमि ह्रदि तुमि मर्म
त्वं हि प्राणाः शरीरे
बाहुते तुमि मा शक्ति,
हृदये तुमि मा भक्ति,
तोमारै प्रतिमा गडि मन्दिरे-मन्दिरे ॥
त्वं हि दुर्गा दशप्रहरणधारिणी
कमला कमलदल विहारिणी
वाणी विद्यादायिनी, नमामि त्वाम्
नमामि कमलां अमलां अतुलाम्
सुजलां सुफलां मातरम् ॥
श्यामलां सरलां सुस्मितां भूषिताम्
धरणीं भरणीं मातरम् ॥
REREADING – CATCHER IN THE RYE
First of all I would like to accept that HOLDEN COULFIELD seems to me a very impressive character. A person who is untouched by any single evil. He is the man who knows, how this world should function.And when I first time went through the book. He came out as a hero against so called phony world.
But this was the real problem. Personally i dont think that anyone can be so perfect that he can declare that except him nothig is good. And if by any chance it happens then there is something wrong in it. I was not sure about it, but my instinct makes me uncomfortable. Somehow i was unable to accept his goodness. If i tell you the truth at first place,i coudnt find out any single mistake in his personality.I was convinced whatever he said. I was seeing the same picture which he was showing me.
When i started the analyzing it. I was mere repeating his words.So i decided to give it a re read. Without having anything in mind. I decided not to think just let the things go in my mind and lets see what will come out.
Point is, in the book HOLDEN has divided everythng in two categories ‘BLACK and WHITE. Things which seems to him right are pure White and rest are pure Black. He even dont bother to think for a single time that there could be a Grey shade too.Because thats complex thing. And he wants everythng straight.
But practical is it possible. He is only sixteen, how much has he seen ? How much he knows about the world ? How much experience he has about life ? What he knows is only his problems . What he knows is that except him no one has any problem . People don bother too rethink about their activities whether they are right or wrong.
When you are young you can think like that. There is a very famous saying ‘ You are not a man if you havent liked Marxism in your young hood and Socialism in your Adulthood.’ Life is not perfect in itself that’s the reason we suffer. Thats the reason we keep moving toward perfection.
If everything will be so perfect then whats the game ? In that case there will be no conflict, that means no fun, that mean no struggle, no fight, no tears and no joy of victory.
But Mr.HOLDEN thinks how it could be possible . Things which were so crystal clear in his childhood. Why they are changing now ? He is against any kind of change. He wants to be the one who is free from any kind of evil. Thats possible only in a world which dosent exist at least not in this solar system.
He has fear to become like others, to become someone like Stradlater or Carl Luce, but he never accepts it. Instead he covers himself by saying that they are not his kind of guys.Thats mean they are not good, thats mean they are BLACK.
I dont know why he dosent like any single thing at present. Why he dosent want to live in present ? Why he always goes in his past ? Why he always tries to prove himself right ? Why he never thinks that even he could be wrong ? Even Buddha was not sure about himself, he had gone through a bad time when every mortal thing became useless for him. But he accepted the fact that he was missing something. He questioned each and every thing but never tried to judge anything. He accepted the fact that he needed some knowledge to understand the mystery of this world.
But here HOLDEN never accepts the fact. He keeps being judgmental about every single thing. Why you become judgmental for anything ?Because you are trying to explain something and the most interesting part is you are explaining it to yourself. You will never speak it in the public because you know people may prove you wrong. And if it happen you will again create another judgment for the person who will prove you wrong.
Here when we go with HOLDEN, most of the time he speaks too himself. He has a huge fear of rejection. He speaks almost everything to himself but never speaks about his weaknesses. How clever he is. To cover his fear of rejection he chooses to REJECT EVERYTHING before he gets rejected by this world.
In the whole book what we see is his rejection for everything and his fear to accept the fact that even he could be wrong or could become one of the others.
I dont say whatever he thinks is wrong. Things are not like that.Definitely This world is a BIG PHONY THEATER. But it dosent mean i will reject it, it dosent mean i will run away from it. I will become a part of it but yes i will try not to be like others. You cant control others. You are not powerful enough. Then why to think for others? Why to think that how should be this world ? What will you get from it ?
Think about what you can. Think about yourself that how you are going to live your life in this world. You have very limited power and by using it the best thing what you can do is , you can control yourself. Its possible one day you will be able to inspire others. But if you will run away you are not going to do any good for anybody. You could be equal to god but being a human i want that god should be here by my side. He should be as close to me as i am.
And for all of this if i tell you the truth at the first place you have to accept the fact that yes this world is like this. You have to accept the reality. And you have to accept the fact that sooner or later you have to enter in this world only. Dont live in past.You are not only ruining your present but also the future. The knowledge what you have earned, expend it in preparing yourself for the future. Dont try to be a perfect man. Just try to be a good man.
HOLDEN has the biggest problem of not accepting the truth. It leads him toward confusion. Confusion makes him introvert. Being introvert makes him extreme judgmental. To prove his judgments, he starts living in the past. Thats makes him incapable of taking any responsibility of adult world. Then he looses his connection with the whole world. Now he is alone. He has alienated himself in the name of a idealistic world.
Two third of the book talks about this only its only after meeting with PHOEBE, his idealism gets a shock and which is reinforced by his English teacher ANTOLINI. Its the first time he accepts the fact that even he could be wrong. And boy thats the beginning of learning. If you already know everything you cant learn anything.You need to create space for new things.
If i tell you the truth, it is quiet sure that this boy goes under the treatment and comes out as a human being not as a hero.He himself has broken his image. But the only problem is he is too clever to say it clearly.
There is a drastic change in his character from first page to last page. Till the page number 180, he wants to become ‘The catcher in the rye’, he thinks that he will become a protector of children, and if any children will ever try to leave the field of rye he will catch him and send him back to the field.
If i take the symbolic meaning then it is like, if childhood will try to enter in the phony world of adulthood i will catch it and send it back to the field of childhood. Because childhood is the most pure form of life. And whole life should be like this only.
But when he sees her sister in carousel, she was trying to grab a golden ring. He thinks that, now pay attention to his words -
“ All the kids kept trying to grab for the golden ring so was old phoebe,i was sort of afraid she’d fall off the goddamn horse, but i didnt say or do anything.The thing with kids is, if they want to grab for the gold ring, you have to let them do it, and not say anything.If they fall off, they fall off, but it’s bad if you say anything to them.”
He is no more a catcher in the rye. He is no more a protector. He is no more someone who thinks childhood should be preserved.Now at this moment he is ready to accept the change. This is the moment when he has created space for something new. First time he has opened himself for others. And its not an easy thing to leave something which has given you shelter for a long time. It requires a lot of courage. And thats the only one thing which helps you in entering from childhood to adulthood.
Well so thats pure my take on Mr. HOLDEN CAULFIELD. You are free to disagree with me as i am free to disagree with you. Even it dosent matter too much what matters is at least we have our own point of view. I dont know if i am through with it or not. Because as nothing is perfect similarly nothing is finished. There is always something which remains untouched, unseen and unexplained.
In the end i was just wondering if i could be able to apply the idea of ‘HERO WITH THOUSAND FACES‘. I tried a little bit and the result says that Holden is very comfortable in his childhood world’s memories. He gets a call from adulthood. Its a new world for him. And its full of mysterious things. There are things he has never seen before. There are people who are devil for him. He dosent know how to deal with it. So what he dose he refuses the call. And this refusal is huge.
But as we know refusal dosent solve the problem, it just makes thing more complicated. If you refuse the call you have to pay the price. Holdan dose pay the price. He becomes all alone. Except him everyone else accepts the call and enters in the world of unknown.
It takes a long time to him to accept the call. What all we know is he accepts the call and enters in the world of adulthood. He denies to tell us anything els about himself.
And if i tell you the truth at first place, i am sort of convinced with this explanation.
What is the sould purpose of ‘Explanation’ ? To make things clear. Then why it happens that after explaning something things become more complex and unclear.
Explanation is meant to give answer of questions but instead of this, it raises more questions. Is not its strange ? It is and that’s why i dont get the idea of explaning anthing.
You explain anything, you can always get a counter explanation and both will seem right up to the best level. Which one to choose and most important which one to refuse.
In this noble process of explanation what remains the same is the ‘CONTENT / THE ELEMENT’ which is destinied to be explained and what keeps changing is its explanation. It never fulfills its soul purpose….never.
What exactly is this process ? How it works ? How it comes to existance ? I think its just reflection of your experiences, perceptions,traumas and limitations. Whatever you do .. you are bound to think in a limited field. You cant escape from it. And this limitations makes everything blur.
That’s why personally i dont believe in explanations, i take things as they are. I like to absorb them in their own smell and color.And then let it born again inside of brain. It takes its time sooner or later something comes from inside.. which is widely known as ‘INSTINCT’. I accept it. I accept it becasue its the mosr natural explanation for anything. I didnt try to motivate or to manipulate any fact.
But the problem is you are asked to explain your instincts. Well how can you explain something which is very natural. Why flowers have smells ? So that you can go and disect them and come up with a refine result that becasue of this and that, they smell. I think its very crude way of explaning things. In this whole process you ruin the smell.Something which was once your subject of curiocity. You killed it.Now it dosent surprise you.You dont feel anything special about it. Is that what makes you happy ? Is that what you were looking for ? I think some times you should not try to find any explanation for anything.
Let them be unexplained. Life becomes easy. Explanations requires association of natural with the unnatural. It only enlarges the area of view nothing else. You cant say for sure .. that yes its final explanation of anything. There is always a possibilty that today or tomorrow, another explanation will emerge to destroy this explanation.
So believe in things, believe in your instincts and believe in you . We do deny to accept our instincts becasue sometimes they seem too horrible that it becomes difficut to accept them.In order to prove them wrong, we start fabricating a explanation.Its just a way to run away from the reality.
So to understand anything what you need is just two things. Acceptance for your instincts and rejection for desire of explanations.
A person who speaks nothing most of the times or who speaks very less, what do you think about that kind of guy ? You think he likes privacy more than anyone else. May be he is unable to speak as he has nothing to speak. May be he is a kind of a guy who thinks , he is something different than others. May be he is so dumb ass as its of no use to expect anything from him. May be he is not social. May be for someone such person may sound quiet mysterious in a way.
So point is there could be number of ‘may be’s, and no doubt all of them could be right in one or another case.But i want to talk about core of silence. What eactly this silece speaks about.
Silence actualy is ‘absence of sound’.Here in writing it will be ‘absense of words’. So lets talk about it with the help of noise means words.
Most of the time i just wonder why people always speaks? Yes ! Mostly have experienced people becomes desperate if they get nothing to speak. They just cant bear the silence. It scares them. If they have nothing to say about present then they will jump in the future.If it will be over , they will drive back to the past. They will fetch those things which almost one has forgotten. And if even it wont work they will start talking about anything ..any kind of nonsense wheather it has any relevence with other person or not.
And you know what is the irony in it. No body wants to hear anyone.Everyone wants to heare oneself.People love their voices. You can easily find out a kind of thrust in their voice as they are throwing themselves over you and you are expected to hold them.
I wonder why a lot of people dont wants to listen ? Why they dont sit quiet for a while . I mean just say nothing. Dont talk to anyone.Just be in you. It seems being silent is a easy job. Becsue you have to do nothing. Its a kind of luxury. But is it true ?
When you are not talking to others, what will you do ? Just imagine ,what have you got to do ? Either you will try to concentrate on things which are around you or about current happenings. But after a time it all becomes repeatitive.It becomes dull..boring.
As time passes, and you are forced to remain silent. You ask yourself what should i do ? Here..just wait for a second . Did you notice , what exactly have you done. You have talked to someone.Dont look around.No one is there, for the whole world you are silent. But just now before a second, you have asked a question to someone. You have just start a conversation with yourself.
Here comes the problem. You cant talk anything rubbish with yoursel because your concious mind already knows about things.IF you will try to play with it or do some trick.It will reject it.
This rejection is something what compless you to run away from yourself.The outer world ,which accepts each and every world you say, becoms heaven for you. And talking to ourselves becomes a hell. You just cant understand the idea of rejection. Rejection which denies the untruth. Which denies what you are not.
It becomes a pain to face this reality. You seek a quick disprin for it.But here in silence, even if you will screeme no one can here your voice.No body is going to come to help you. You are free to yell. You will have to be with yourself. And Removing your so much beloved mask from your face is not a likeable thing.
Silence is a dangerous thing. Its killer. People scared from it becasue they just cant deal with it. That’s why they speak , they speak and even when they die, they wish to speak atleast something which can take them to the heaven.
Throughout their life they never get to know, what exactly they were ? What for they were here ? They live in a phony world as a phony characters. Real thins dosent come out.
Why did we invent ‘words’ ? Give a thought about it. Just to express our silence. Silence which stores your basic emotions and desires. But what we did with it ? We moved too far from our home that we actually missed the directions.
Words’ve created a more beautiful facny home for us. But it is unnatural thing, the natural one is ‘the world of silence’. And every natural thing is wild and beautiful both at the same time. It takes time to get to know that which side you are aiming at. But once you discover,things go easy.
After watching ‘Being John Malcowitch’, it was expected from Charli Caufman to give something like “Eternal….mind “. This is a pure cinematic story of a couple. They fell in love with eachother and get married.Soon they realise that their relationship is not working.Both get pissed off.Girl (Clementine) decides to erase him from her memory and she dose. Boy (Joel) has no idea about it.A friend of clementan tells him the truth. He too goes for the same treatment.But in the middle of the treatment when doctors were removing his memory in backword, as soon as he goes to the beginning of his affair with Clementine. He realises that he wants her back. He tries to stop the process.He fights inside of his brain but coudnt succeed.
Well so this is ths story in short. Lets look at the writer’s point of view. Both characets love each other. But they are not compatible .They lack something like Joel is too boring person while Clementine is so impulsive and changabale. She just cant bear the idea of repeatingg the same stuff again and again.
Both have a lot of expectation from each other. Joel wants her to live a normal life. Clementine wants some change.They fight for children.Joel thinks she is not ready for a child at all while other side clemeantan thinks he dosent want to bear the rsponsibility.
With the time they develope differeent kind of opinios for each other. Things which were attracitive in the beginning now they have turned into troubles. They want to change other person. Finally break up point comes and they split.
But the idea of removing someone from the memory can work only if you really hate someone.But if it is not , whatever you do, you cant remove it completly.
It is very clear in the film.The same thing happens with Mary, when she is forced by senior dcotor Howard, for the treatmennt.That’s why she dosent remember anything about her past with him but it is there in her heart. The feeling is still in his subconcious mind.You can erase something what is visible but what about that which is invisible.Concious mind can be traced but not the unconcious one.
In the train when Joel and Clementine meet again.They have this feeling as they know each other somehow.They again get attracted to each other. Even after the treatment, the person is in their subconcious mind.
When Patrick tries to impress Clementine by using same thing and words of Joel. She gets disturbed. She knows something is wrong.Her subconcious mind is reacting.But she cant remember anything becasue her concious mind has no clue about that.Its sopttless.
Same thing happens with Joel, he just dont know why he comes to Montun. He just comes.His subconcious mind is forcing her to recall something but he cant.But it drives him back to Clementine.
And soon they find each other in the same car. Clementine even has and idea tht might be they have met sometimes before somewhere.
And when they here cassettes, they realise what they have done in past. But they are confused again.Joel asked Clementine to wait for a while. She has fear that may be the same thing will happen again. If they will come close. But this time Joel assures her that now its fine.Actually now he knows what was the problem in their relation.So it wont bother them anymore.
They agree to accept each otehr as they are. And thats the sunshine of spottless mind. They dont have any prenotions for each other anymore. They are just spottless now.
It takes me a long time to learn the basic idea of ‘Premise’ but good thing is now i am getting a little bit sense of it. In lay terms if we say then – ‘ A Premise is ” a character in a situation”. lets make it more cinematic – a interesting character in an interesting situation’. Now lets explore it a little bit more.
Usually premise should have three elements in it – Set up / Main Conflict / Resolution. Well nothing new is in it. we all know that. SO lets try to see it in a different way.
A Premise is something which talks about ACT 1 and ACT 3. It gives just a snap shot of ACT 2. Give me some time to explain it, so that it can make some sense.
Actually every story starts with an idea only. A idea could be anything but for a cinematic story, it must have something to say, some message or some thought. This message becomes Theme of the story. Now to develop a story from it, we have to think such situations and characters which should be supportive to the premise.
Why dose Premise become so important for a story ?
well despite reading a lot of about it.I couldn’t get so much sense of it until i myself didn’t realize the need of an static premise.
Writing is a very unpredictable process. You just don’t know next moment what you are going to write.Once you start writing ,things starts popping up from no where. It becomes a difficult job to control the flow of various ideas.All seems good and workable.
And you know when it happens the most ? in ACT 2 . Yes ! right after setting up the story , now requirement comes to make in interesting, to make it engaging. ACT 2 is the part which deals with it. That’s why ‘in writer’s bay , it is called the most difficult part.’
And this is the where we need someone to guide us so that we can achieve our goal. Goal of the story. and in a story nothing else but only Premise is the guiding torch.
I think most of the armature writers get stuck when they start developing ACT 2. why ?
Because they work too much in second act , to make it interesting that they almost forget the initial point of the story and thats Premise. they do all kind of experiment and when they reaches at ACT 3, they feel something..something.. must have gone wrong.
They go back and find …ohh.. its not the premise actually…its not the message ..they were willing to convey. Act 2 is good ..but its not like as it should be.
What is the Purpose of ACT 2 ?
For me.. it is there to enhance the idea of premise. It is there so that you can touch the border of ACT 3 in a unique way. For that ACT 2 should not be unique. The whole story should be Unique. We should go back and think about he basic elements of premise. It fixes ACT 1 & ACT 3. You know from where you have to start and where you have to go.
ACT 2 is just a road, you have to travel .It could be a straight line or a zig zag road. It could be a tunnel, passage underwater or through free sky. But is it really matter for you when you are so much determined to go somewhere that by which means you are going ? Definitely not . And a massage can be conveyed only if you have that kind of determination in you.
That’s why ACT 2 .. should be the most interesting part of the story but not the leading part of the story.
Screenwriter’s job is to write scenes in such a way that ‘ a story can be told through visuals only’. Its cinema and what we expect in a film some beautiful scenes,some scenes which can be remembered.
Question comes , where do the dialogues come in the scene ? Are the unnecessary part of a film ? Are they have nothing to do with screen writing ?
What I think is “ DIALOGUES SHOULD BE USED TO FILL THE GAP.TO ENHANCE THE IMPACT OF A SCENE BUT NOT AND NEVER TO CREATE A SCENE. ”
If you are using dialogue because you are unable to find out proper visuals that represents your insufficiency with the subject. And when I say visuals , it includes symbolic visuals too.
Words sometimes just takes away all the beauty of a scene. If you are using them to describe a situation, or to explain something , its like murdering the art which is called cinema.
Use them so that you can bring out the emotions which are already there in a scene, coming through visuals. Dont use them to bring the emotions.
And it is applicable for any genre of cinema. Where comedy, horror, romance or thriller.
And that the job of screenwriter to create scenes, and if necessary them write dialogues.
The problem is that here in India people think screen writer means, who writes story, script and dialogues as well. But no Screen writer cant write any dialogue if there is no moving scene. The germs of dialogue should be there. Screenwriter just gives them some vitamins and brings them out as strong as possible.
He cant create germs from out of nothing. As its universal law only nothing comes out from nothing.
13-14 DECEMBER
“Has The ‘INDIAN SCRIPT’ arrived ?”
Lets talk a little bit about it. As first of all i feel fortunate to be there and being a part of an event which was not organized just for discussion and talking about problems, specifically and particularly it was aimed towards ‘ Finding Possible Solutions’ of the problems. And i think here it rarely happens when 500 people pay attention to one thing rather than other things.
As it was published and told that FWA was going to bring some kind of ‘MODEL CONTRACT’ for the benefit of writers,who come under the BPL area in terms of cinema. And most interesting thing it is just a beginning . And if this will be succeed then not only writing will get a security but also it will get a standard. Cause when you are liable of availing something good, you need to pay the price. And in terms of writing it is; you should be original,good and very of yourself. No place for the people who have no passion for writing except a desire to be known as a Writer.
Well personally i think i should not say it will be a ‘Benefit for writers’, that has a reason – writers are going to change, they may have number of names. Different locations and so on but writing will remain the same. A good writing is not a property of an individual. It could belong to anyone.
So according to me this MODEL CONTRACT is going to help INDIAN WRITING not the writers, they will get the benefits by default.
: FIRST DAY :
Session 1 : “VIJAY TENDULKAR : THE MAN , THE WRITER,
AND HIS WORK”
So first day includes a ‘ Tribute session to the great writer of Indian cinema and play world – Lt. VIJAY TENDULAKAR’. No doubt he is a man who wrote what he thought he should write. He never compromised with the quality of ‘writing’. And before claiming of being a writer ,one should go through his work.Before availing the facility of fancy word’ writer’, one should be clear that ‘has he at least 10 % of Tendulkar in his writing or not ? If not that means, he needs to move a little bit more, he needs to rethink about his thinking. I don’t say one needs to ‘write’ what he has written but yes one needs to be as ‘powerful ‘ as he was.One’s writing should leave an impact on the viewer.Thats all.
Dont look for Truffoart, Godarth, Bunuel or Tarrentrino to know the art of ‘writing’, it is here only.try and learn ‘craft’ of cinema from others but soul will come from Indian masters cause they have studied our culture. They have discovered the missing links of nations. They have suffered the ups and downs of living in Indian circumstances. How come a person living in America or France can feel the same thing? And if not then how can he would be able to tell you what to do with your writing, not at all.
Here please don’t say cinema is an universal medium and one can learn from any where. The thing is that it is ‘Cinema’ which is universal not the ‘Writing’. And it makes a big difference. Emotions are very of human beings. But what a writer dose when he weaves a story. He includes basic ingredients of the particular culture in his writing so that a person can easily relate himself with it. Do you think RAMAYAN or MAHABHARAT cud be more interesting if we change the location from INDIA to Luxembourg, or names from RAM/ KRISHNA to Josheph/ Peter.
Session 2 : ‘WHAT MAKES INDIAN SCRIPT UNIQUE ?’
Moderated by KAMAL HASAN and spokespersons were – Nasareen Munni Kabir,Vinay Shukla,Rakesh Om prakash Mehara and B.R. ISHARA.
Lets read again the highlighted question and give a pause, now think. is it our stories ? Dont give me a shit… we know from last one decade what is going on.. well recently we are improving but still it cant be a ‘UNIQUE FACTOR’. Then .. is it songs ? Hmm… well noone but we only use songs in our film. Although most of the time a song has nothing to do with the soul of ’script’ cause basically they are put there on the demand of producers not writers.in that case it is all clear , it could be a unique factor of Indian cinema but considering we are talking about script .. its definitely not.
Then what neither story nor song then what else one can do with ’script’? Structure .. OK lets have an overview of Indian films and other films whose structure carries more uniqueness. Our most of the films go in a straight line without even moving an inch from the path shown by last generations. While rest of the world has already searched number of ways to reach at the destination. So it could be a unique factor but not in terms of writing but for criticizing.
Hmm.. what else lets look at Hindi films. What you find in them .. every single film tries to capture attention of all region’s population. India is big big big country with multiple cultures and languages.you cant make films for particular part of country. It should have an universal Indian appeal. For that we somehow manage to melt every possible emotion, in a single script so that viewers can realize that they are watching a lot in a film. Even you manage a few songs according to ‘unrequirement of script but producers’. But still you write and wishes for success.
It is something which is UNIQUE in Indian script.
Consciously or unconsciously we have made a different process of treating a film. In our country there is no common language, no common weather and no common food and taste. While in other countries they are more or less similar in every part of country. They don’t need to think what language to choose for film. But we have to do.
And another think is INDIA is still a developing country, money matters a lot for every Indian whether he is religious, devotional or a simple common man. It is there in their mind. You cant escape it. And Being Indian we have one more quality.We don’t expend a single nickle if it is not helping us in having some advantage. Even when we do ‘DAAN’ , its not totally willingly but with an expectation that it will get a good life after death . And it is everywhere.
SO when we go to watch a cinema we expect more and more and INDIAN CINEMA is providing them more and more in every film.No one dares to cut a single entertaining element. Well here when i am talking about audience , its not about intellectuals who appreciates WORLD CINEMA as for most of the people are still unaware of it. For them CINEMA bole to ‘PURE CLASSIC INDIAN CINEMA.
Its not like people dont want to watch good films. But they are very insecure about loosing their money.They want to invest money not to west. Producers know it and even they don’t take risk to confuse their daily customers. By giving them a food hey haven’t tasted before.
So considering all various possibilities, we have developed our SCRIPTS in such a way that they make sure that ‘VIEWERS ARE GOING TO WATCH A NEW FILM BUT THE TASTE IS SAME’.
But new writers are coming with new concepts. They have seen film from all directions of world. They have knowledge what is SCREEN PLAY. WHAT IS STRUCTURE ? They want to experiment with it. But sometime they just copy it or make it exactly as it is outside. They dont try to mingle it with Indian concept of script writing, which could be old and useless but is still UNIQUE in some sense. We need to capture this UNIQUENESS from Indian script tradition and have to try to build a new CONCEPT. Which has a new story, new concept and new structure but still whose taste is same.
Whatever you made you should keep in mind this is not for a particular mass, if it is so then sorry to say but you are satisfying yourself but not doing any good of cinema. Cinema means something which reaches to the larger public. If you are unable to find a way. Then it dosent mean something is wrong with the receiver but the sender.
You are the one who has to deliver, find out the address.
Session 3 : “WRITING FOR TELEVISION – in the post Doordarshan era.”
OK so Now lets talk about another most effective medium of communication – T.V. It could be a kind of similarity that both cinema and TV shares a similar linear structure of ‘Rise ,Fall and Rise’. In 90’s, TV world began to fall and recently we can find some significant changes and varieties. Which were almost invisible in saas, bahu era.
It seems like in 90’s when India opened its door to the world and money. When we were trying to increase our bank balance. When a lot of good opportunities began to rise, writers started to seek new avenues to earn money as even at that time money was very less for them. And it was more or less a thing of passion only.
One more thing happened, it created a gap between demand and supply. People who were coming with new channels their main goal was to make money. They denied to pay enough money to good writers. It gave a chance to amateur writers who were below average in quality but ready to accept any money given by owner. As they too knew what they deserve. But people who were good they denied to compromise at least for quality.
And it took almost two decades to understand the real need of writing. You cant make viewers fool for a life time. At least not to the new generation. When new generation came , it demanded something new. And result was reality shows, comedy shows and Indian idol and all.
Now again in this global era when westerns TV is easily accessible to viewers. People are demanding something like that. And this ..’something’ .. is making a difference. You cant bring this something by ‘camera angles or extending an episode’. You have to work on story.
And now who has the story. A writer who is passionate for writing. This something can be delivered only by them. And we are here to bridge this gap. So now its the time to ask our rights.
ATISH KAPADIYA :
According to him TV has become a medium to earn money. As Cinema has no security for money but TV dose. As well as he insisted that TV writers still think that they should save the best for Cinema. And here in TV do; whatever they are asked to do. This kind of attitude is also responsible for the bad quality of TV programs.
He could be a little wrong for money and all but one thing is sure’ writers himself is responsible for his exploitation.’
VINOD RANGNATH :
The man who has written first daily soap after DD era ‘SWABHIMAN’ was very bitter for writers and supportive for producers. According to him, today’s writers dosent want to work hard. They dont want to do research. Most of the daily soap-operas carry single protagonist, whose story ends in 3 months. After that to continue the episodes writer starts extending other characters’ screen time. And it leads towards more change in sound and camera angle rather than story.
He also points out a name Mageen Dimajio , who is ’Sid Field’ for TV. But tv writers hardly know him. Thats the standard of present writers.
RAJESH DUBEY :
Writer of ‘BALIKA VADHU’ , was so much angry over producers as his every line was full of sarcastic words. He clearly mentioned that how a writer is asked to make change or to write new scenes and dialogue for the sake of TRP. As one can easily point out celebration of HOLI, DIWALI or KARAWA CHAUTH in every serial at festival seasons. He also put the problems of payment and checks.
Session 4 : “ARE INDIAN SCREENWRITING STANDARDS A CAUSE FOR CONCERN ?”
Screenwriting and Standards ; well first of all it seems Indian cinema has no tradition of structure or technical aspects of a story. As usually we say, India has longest and richest tradition of storytelling and that tradition is still going on but Cinema is not just telling a story. It is not communicating a message. It is telling a story in such a way that it can remain in the mind of viewer.
The problem what seems to me is lies somewhere in the understanding of story and presentation. In our cinema, we have divided it into two groups, intellectual or messaging cinema and commercial cinema. Intellectual means choosing an real incident,forming a difficult story and using artistic angles , motions and pauses. While commercial means choosing a simple story and presenting it in a linear way.
But it it so ? Is there any cinematic art exist if a communicator is unable to communicate himself to the wide audience ? Whats the use of then such stories, which a common man cant understand. One may say but cinema is not just giving people lollipops and selling romantic dreams. Definitely not.But here comes the problem. Most of the time it is considered that Indian audience has no acceptance of serious things. They want cinema to be entertaining. Is it really true ? Who doesn’t want to have a Mercedes, if it is coming to him?
The point is we never try to find out a balanced way which can communicate a serious issue in an interesting way. Why ? Cause we believe in story telling only but not in forming them. Cinema is a combination of passion and technical aspects. You could have a good story teller. But if you don’t know how to present it on the screen. Sorry to say you are not fit for cinema. Better write a book or make a movie for yourself.
Here comes the need of STRUCTURE. What it dose ? It helps in arranging a story in a n interesting form. It makes every story reasonable. Your highly intellectual idea can get a very simple structure which will make it communicable to everyone and also a simple story can get a very different treatment.
Overall the thing is that… you cant put a space between story and structure. Both are complimentary to each other.
ABBAS TYREWALA :
The very first and most interesting point given by him was – Default Villein.
As right now our stories have no villein, once there were , Uneducation, Zameedar, Smuggler, Cast System and Kashmir. But with the time either they have disappeared or we have made number of films on them that now they are of no use.
In this situation we need new villein. He blames writers to not trying to find out new avenues of stories. He insists to look inside and find GRAY QUALITIES of our selves. As well as he blames writers that they don’t want to suffer for a good cause. How many times a writer denies from not doing a film he is not willing to do. They don’t dare and that’s why people exploit them.
If we want something good then we have to pay its price too.
ABHIJAT JOSHI :
Co-writer of Munnabhai- 1,2 spoke about requirement of a screen writing journal, where we new writers can avail advantage of professionals as well as the whole writing community can share itself with each other.
He also talks about FILM DNA. As every film contains its unique DNA. You cant use copy paste of another films in your film if it dosent match to the DNA of your film.
S.M. VASANTH :
He talked about his writing style, as he always asks three question to himself before starting to work on a screen play. Will the audience like his screenplay ? A simple question which so called INTELLECTUALS neglect . As well as he asked new writers not to hide THEME under traditional style of storytelling.
He used a new term HYPERLINK CINEMA, as connecting a number of stories in a single story to tell a lot at the same time. e.g ; Babel.
: SECOND DAY :
Session 5 : “THE POLITICS OF SCRIPT”
Definitely its not true that only purpose of Indian cinema is to entertain. But it is true that due to this approach many ideas have been turned down. But now we are more open than often. People have approved new subjects.
JAHNU BARUA :
He explains that , not the subject but most important thing is writer’s approach. A good writer can present a serious issue in a funny and interesting way. He should be like a pathfinder.
KAMALESH PANDEY :
He shared his old time memories with us and told that in each story he tries to find substance. And who can forget his so long ‘River of Memories’.
Session 6 : “WRITER’S RIGHTS”
The most important session of the conference was this one. In present when cinema has turned into an industry. As well as now it is run by financial system. A writer should get his share. Why to compromise ? And model contract has claimed minimum 9 lakh for a full fledged script. Highly appreciated by FWA delegates.
It is just a start. Model contract will be produced in front of producer’s committee and then it will get approval of FWICE ( federation of western India cine employees).
Its not over. FWA is also working on two more model contracts – lyricist and TV writer’s rights.
Session 7 : “THE WRITER-DIRECTOR RELATIONSHIP”
Well well the most interesting and complex part of film making. Film making is a joint venture. And it starts with a script and a director, who wants to handle it. But still we are fighting to clear the importance of writer and director.
Cinema is known as director’s medium. You have two option; either accept it or stand up against it. Director is the one who improvises the story , who enriches the story, by utilizing his resources beautifully. When a writer writes a story he visualizes a lot of things. Its not necessary that when the shoot is going on. All those things will be available. And sometime it happens that a better option is available to communicate the same feeling.
At that time director wants to make some changes and writer doesn’t like such kind of changes. Cause after making some changes director ignores writer’s hard work. They forget that whatever they are doing is based on the ‘core script’.
So what should be relationship between a director and writer ? Its a very very important question for today. And we should try to find out a reasonable answer to it.
There is also some confusion about ‘writing method of script’. Look there are three basic category – Director only, Writer Only, Writer-Director. Now when a ‘writer-director’ writes a script he knows the shooting locations, the crew, available resources and also all kind of camera angles. So he uses this pre-information in his script. In actual he writes a ‘Shotting Script’.
But when a ‘Writer Only’ writes a script he uses his visual power. He insists on the substance of story rather than the treatment of a particular scene. One can say, in the end story should be workable for the director. Ok agree. But you cant expect a writer to think as a translator of visuals. Primary he is a thinker, he works for the best possibilities of story. And directors job is to shoot those scenes in the best possible way. Thats why he is a director. If he will get everything so perfect what for he is there ? Just to hold the script and command the crew members ?
Other thing, when a writer writes he should not wonder in his own fairy world. Overall he is not writing stories for the viewer of his imagined world. His imagination is part of reality. And yes he should have a deep sense of shooting. He should be able to capture the essence of story in an interesting way rather than in a complicated way. And no doubt nothing is finished until you yourself think that its over now.
There is always a better option available. So he should be flexible enough to accept the changes, i f they are adding something good in the story. Whatever you say ’story’ was, is, and will remain a ‘fiction’ only. Sometimes real conditions dosent allow a story to express itself. Then go for a change, come with a more ‘realistic fiction’. It takes some time but it can be done.
In all cases it is not necessary that a writer should think like a director or a director should think like a writer. Both have different but common things to do. They should try to refine them. The relationship what both shares is because of ’story’. Work for it not for personal ego satisfaction.
I would like to say one more thing , both fields involved highly creative energy but still both have some technical aspects too. And its definitely not necessary that one should be perfect in others technical aspects. If one is then its for his own benefit.
PUBALI CHAUDHARI :
Raghvan asks her to tell three things, what a writer looks in a director. And her answer was simple and straight : Faith. Freedom. Acceptance.
SANJAY GADVI :
Initially he tells that the ideal combination in cinema is ‘written and directed by’.. but when Ahswani Malik took the mike , he rolled back. But still it seems our industry is not ready to give the importance to the writer. It still feels that writer’s are only ’story writer’ not screen writer..
ASHWANI MALIK :
He supported Pubali . As well as he added one more point that writer should not be taken for granted when it comes to payement of money. As personaly it is very difficult for him to raise his voice for money.
If there is a mutual understanding then a director should take care of his team members. As although money is not all what for a writer is dieing for.But yes it is The most important aspect to survive and to continue what you are doing.
VIPUL SHAH :
Vipul raises a good point that he thinks a writes should not have any fear. He should be able to stand for his conviction. What happen most of the time a writer accepts whatever is said by director. It leads towards disaster only.
No doubt industry is so much insecure for writers that they hardly say no to director. Cause in that case he will hire another writer as till yet there is no rules and regulations. But yes after approval of model contract i think there will be a number of ‘Nos’ too.
SREE RAMRAGHAVAN :
Moderated the discussion.
Session 8 : “THE WRITER – PRODUCER RELATIONSHIP”
Finally time came when Abbas Tyrewala gave an official thanks to the man who is the backbone of this whole event – Mr. Anjum Rajabali. If i dont have any memory loss then i am sure, he got the maximum applause by the delegates. And when noone stops clapping, he himself stood up to signal that ok, now come to the point and pay attention for what i am working from last two years.
In Abbas words ‘ without him it was not possible, he used his all contacts and time to make it happen, to bring it on paper and that’s why here we are.’
After that another spicy discussion took place in this session, headed by Abbas Tyrewala. He asked about the value of script / money for a producer. And producers told that in any case it is money. As they cant risk their money .
But with the change in cinema they also want to introduce new scripts but not in the cost of money. If it is good and requires low budget then they will go for it.
VIPUL SHAH :
Role of producer? Isn’t its interesting thing? Producers are considered uneducated in cinematic terms and highly educated in financial terms. Then how come they suggest a writer that what to do what to not . They keep watching collections of box-office . Do they have enough time to pay attention to the quality of script ? A lot of good questions were answered by him.
In a nut shell it was ‘ an affair to remember for life time’. I saw and learned a lot of unseen and new things. These two days were not like any other days. Now they are part of past, but they have opened a door for the upcoming future.
Good things are waiting just at the door. We have come a long , but don’t stop now its time to run and finish this race.
With all my best wishes to ‘FWA’ . Special thanks to ‘Anjum sir’, who made it possible after years of hard work.
In the end thanks to my FTII course-coordinator Mr. S.V.Raghunath to make my first traveling for Bombay so easy . And last but not the least a note of thanks to Mr. Yakoob –Our Van Driver. Who came with us and provided a good musical company throughout the journey.
